Fail Often? Not Good For Souls

The mantra of Internet entrepreneurs is “fail often”, which is another way of saying “I get knocked down and I get up again”. Or “whatever doesn’t break you, makes you stronger”.

And it is true, and it works. As long as it is a business, an idea, a relationship or a job. Adjuncts to yourself.

It doesn’t work for the essence of who you are, the persona that you have spent your life shaping.

To start again from scratch and create a brand new you, after your last you failed, would be a very rare ability.

If your essential self fails, then you are broken, for good.

I’d like to think that more evolved humans might be able to switch to new persona, like an actor, when the last one failed, but then that might mean we lose what makes us human. It might make us no different than robots that can be reprogrammed.

So what is the answer to broken souls?

I’m thinking it is the opposite of “fail often”. I think it is “win often”.

There’s another thing that Internet entrepreneurs do, to avoid failure. When something is looking like failure, they pivot before it does fail. They move to a new, better win.

That’s what I wish souls could do. Recognise that what can/will break you is on the horizon and pivot to a new, winning, you.

It’s not easy. People don’t recognise the signs. We should learn to recognise the signs. And we should learn to have the courage to pivot before failure kicks in.

The first step is self-awareness and awareness of your every day environment. Not just accepting it as how things are, but continually seeing it for what it really is, and asking if it is acceptable.

I’d say the majority of marriages are a compromise, where he/she thinks “they’ll do, because not having someone is worse”. I figure most jobs aren’t ideal, but people say they love their job because to admit what you spend a most of your waking hours doing isn’t your preference, would be horrible.

You can fail at a job or a relationship or a business, and start again, as long as it was your failure to own. If those things fail for reasons you cannot own, then your soul can take a hit. Redundancy, cheating partner, global recession.

But to avoid being broken soul, you need to be consciously aware of your reality, and be ready to pivot when it no longer serves as a win. And to do that you need to have your ear to the ground, and recognise the signs. In retrospect, we all saw the signs. We just didn’t recognise them when we need to.

It is far from easy.

About Rob

These are just random musings that belong nowhere else, and saving ideas so that one day I can say I told you so. Not looking for traction.